Birmingham isn\'t the city you think it is and I invite you to read the investment opportunities driven by a Medical City.

1. Birmingham, Alabama A Smart Investment Jason C. Cory LAS Companies [email_address] www.lascompanies.com

2. Table of Contents History of Birmingham.........................................................2-3 Economy.................................................................................4-6 Urban Planning......................................................................7-9 Medical District......................................................................10-15 Unemployment & Real Estate Trends....................................16 Downtown Birmingham 1916 Vulcan holds a cone-shaped, lighted beacon. This signal has always glowed green on days no one was killed in an auto accident and red on days when there was a fatality. It can be seen from anywhere in Downtown Birmingham situated atop Red Mountain. Vulcan Statue Overlooking Birmingham Since 1905

3. History of Birmingham Birmingham was founded in 1871, just after the American Civil War, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, former Elyton. It grew from there, annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and railroad transportation center with a focus on mining, the iron and steel industry, and railroading. Birmingham was named for Birmingham, one of the major industrial cities of the United Kingdom. Most of the original settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. The city was planned as a place where cheap, non-unionized, and African-American labor from rural Alabama could be employed in the city's steel mills and blast furnaces, giving it a competitive advantage over industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast. From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was a primary industrial center of the South. The pace of Birmingham's growth during the period from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames The Magic City and The Pittsburgh of the South . Much like Pittsburgh, Birmingham's major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry, where rails and railroad cars were both manufactured in Birmingham. In the field of railroading, the two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South were nearby Atlanta and Birmingham, beginning in the 1860s and continuing through to the present day. The economy diversified during the later half of the twentieth century. Though the manufacturing industry maintains a strong presence in Birmingham, other businesses and industries such as banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education, and insurance have risen in stature. Mining in the Birmingham area is no longer a major industry with the exception of coal mining. Birmingham ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and is also one of the largest banking centers in the United States. In addition, the Birmingham area serves as headquarters to one Fortune 500 company: Regions Financial . Five Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered in Birmingham.

4. Recent History of Birmingham In the 1970s urban renewal efforts focused around the development of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which developed into a major medical and research center. In 1971 Birmingham celebrated its centennial with a round of public works improvements, including the upgrading of Vulcan Park. Birmingham's banking institutions enjoyed considerable growth as well and new skyscrapers started to appear in the city center for the first time since the 1920s. These projects helped the city's economy to diversify, but did not prevent the exodus of many of the city's residents to independent suburbs. In 1979 Birmingham elected Dr. Richard Arrington Jr. as its first African-American mayor. The population inside Birmingham's city limits has fallen over the past few decades, due in large part to " white flight " from the city of Birmingham proper to surrounding suburbs. From 340,887 in 1960, the population was down to 242,820 in 2000, a loss of about 29 percent. By 2009 Census estimates place Birmingham's population at 230,650. That same period saw a corresponding rise in the populations of the suburban communities of Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Alabaster, and Gardendale, none of which were incorporated as municipalities until after 1950. Today, Birmingham has begun to experience a bit of a rebirth. Money has been invested in reconstructing the downtown area into a 24-hour mixed-use district. The market for downtown lofts and condominiums has mushroomed while restaurant, retail and cultural options are beginning to sprout up. In 2006 the visitors bureau selected " the diverse city " as a new tag line for the city. In the 1950s and 1960s Birmingham received national and international attention as a center of the civil rights struggle for African-Americans. Locally the movement's activists were led by Fred Shuttlesworth, a fiery preacher who became legendary for his fearlessness in the face of violence, notably a string of racially motivated bombings that earned Birmingham the derisive nickname "Bombingham". A watershed in the civil rights movement occurred in 1963 when Shuttlesworth requested that Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which Shuttlesworth had co-founded, come to Birmingham, where King had once been a pastor, to help end segregation. Together they launched "Project C" (for "Confrontation"), a massive assault on the Jim Crow system. During April and May daily sit-ins and mass marches organized and led by movement leader James Bevel were met with police repression, tear gas, attack dogs, fire hoses, and arrests. More than 3,000 people were arrested during these protests, almost all of them high-school age children. These protests were ultimately successful, leading not only to desegregation of public accommodations in Birmingham but also the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1998 the Birmingham Pledge, written by local attorney James Rotch, was introduced at the Martin Luther King Unity Breakfast. As a grassroots community commitment to combating racism and prejudice, it has since then been used for programs in all fifty states and in more than twenty countries. Birmingham is also known for a bombing, in which four black girls were killed by a bomb planted at the 16th Street Baptist Church , now a Historical Landmark. (Pictured Above)

5. Economy From Birmingham's early days onward, the steel industry has always played a crucial role in the local economy. Though the steel industry no longer has the same prominence it once held in Birmingham, steel production and processing continue to play a key role in the economy. Several of the nation's largest steelmakers, including CMC Steel, U.S. Steel, McWane, and Nucor , all have a major presence in Birmingham. In recent years, local steel companies have announced about $100 million worth of investment in expansions and new plants in and around Birmingham. In the 1970s and 1980s, Birmingham's economy was transformed by investments in bio-technology and medical research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and its adjacent hospital. The UAB Hospital is a Level I trauma center providing health care and breakthrough medical research. UAB is now the area's largest employer and the largest in Alabama with a workforce of about 20,000. Health care services provider HealthSouth , Surgical Care Affiliates and Diagnostic Health Corporation are also headquartered in the city. Caremark Rx was also founded in the city. Birmingham is also a leading banking center, serving as home to two major banks: Regions Financial Corporation and BBVA Compass . SouthTrust , another large bank headquartered in Birmingham, was acquired by Wachovia in 2004. The city still has major operations as one of the regional headquarters of Wachovia , which itself is now part of Wells Fargo Bank . In November 2006, Regions Financial merged with AmSouth Bancorporation , which was also headquartered in Birmingham. They formed the 8th largest U.S. bank (by total assets). Nearly a dozen smaller banks are also headquartered in the Magic City, such as Superior Bank and (until its failure in 2009) New South Federal Savings Bank . As of 2009, the finance & banking sector in Birmingham employed 1,870 financial managers, 1,530 loan officers, 680 securities commodities and financial services sales agents, 380 financial analysts, 310 financial examiners, 220 credit analysts, and 130 loan counselors. The telephone company that is now owned by AT&T, which was formerly BellSouth and before that South Central Bell, which had its headquarters in Birmingham, has a major nexus in Birmingham, supported by a skyscraper downtown. The insurance companies Protective Life, Infinity Property & Casualty, ProAssurance, and Liberty National have their headquarters in Birmingham, and these employ a large number of people in Greater Birmingham.

7. Urban Planning - Railroad Park A 1924 plan for a system of parks, commissioned from the Olmsted Brothers is seeing renewed interest with several significant new parks and green ways under development. Birmingham officials have approved a City Center Master Plan developed by Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh, which advocates strongly for more Residential development in the Downtown area. The plan also called for a major park over several blocks of the Central Railroad Reservation, Railroad Park, which opened in 2010. Along with Ruffner Mountain Park, and the Proposed Red Mountain Park, Birmingham would rank first in the United States for Public Green Space per Resident . Railroad Park is a 19 acre green space in downtown Birmingham that celebrates the industrial and artistic heritage of our great city. Situated along 1st Avenue South, between 14th and 18th Streets, the park is a joint effort between the City of Birmingham and the Railroad Park Foundation. Hailed as "Birmingham's Living Room," Railroad Park provides a historically rich venue for local recreation, family activities, concerts, and cultural events, while connecting Birmingham's downtown area with Southside and UAB's campus. Railroad Park Railroad Park

9. Urban Planning - Sports The Birmingham City Council's approval of the mayor's plans to build a baseball stadium near Railroad Park will show how a downtown sports facility can be a catalyst for economic growth. Don Logan, owner of the Birmingham Barons minor league baseball team, has said he will relocate the Barons from Hoover's Regions Park back to Birmingham once the stadium is built. Mayor Bell said sports is "a part of who we are in Birmingham," so it makes sense to capitalize by building facilities that position the Magic City "as the sports hosting venue of the Southeast." "Baseball returning to Birmingham signals the return of a team that is our own and has its roots here," the mayor said. "The return of the Barons means jobs, economic growth and the opportunity for Birmingham residents to rally behind their home team. We have taken strategic steps with developments so that projects are within budget and on time," the mayor said. "These incremental projects are important because it builds trust and confidence in our ability to start and complete any project of any size." The stadium will be built adjacent to Railroad Park. An extended lodging tax from the city will provide the $56 million necessary for the stadium. Sports Impact Top sports tourism events in Birmingham area in 2011 and their estimated economic impact: Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama: ................................... Regions Tradition golf tournament: ................................... Aaron's 499 NASCAR race: ................................................ Talladega 500: .................................................................. Magic City Football Classic: ............................................... BBVA Compass Bowl: .......................................................... Black American Softball Association Tournament: .............. SEC Baseball Championship: ............................................... SWAC Football Championship: ............................................ Alabama Sports Festival: .................................................... Red Diamond Vulcan Cup youth soccer tournaments: ....... AHSAA Final 48 State Basketball Championships: ............... Total Sports Economic Impact for 2011 ..................... $33 million $25 million $24 million $20 million $15.8 million $12 million $10 million $8.5 million $8 million $7.6 million $7.5 million $6.7 million $178.1 million

14. Children's Hospital of Alabama Birmingham Construction and Expansion - $1.2 Billion In about a year, Children's Hospital will open the largest medical facility expansion in Alabama History. The Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children will sit on a five-block campus just north of the current Children's Hospital and will accommodate projected growth in patient volume, anticipated technology needs, and consolidation of services, all in a family-centered design to enhance patient and family comfort. Construction of the new hospital is providing about 1,746 jobs and $70.6 million in payroll to local contractors, bringing a significant economic boost to the State of Alabama, Jefferson County, and the City of Birmingham. In addition, Children's Hospital is poised to become the first hospital in the state to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification with the new construction. Incorporating green design into the building of a hospital typically adds two to four percent to the construction costs. Such costs for this project will be underwritten by a portion of a $10 million gift from Birmingham-based McWane, Inc. and the McWane Foundation. As part of the expansion a central energy plant (CEP) built, managed and maintained by Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) of Milwaukee will serve Children's Hospital. The CEP offers an innovative and cost-effective approach to providing the energy that will be needed to heat and cool the 740,000-square-foot Children's Hospital expansion facility currently under construction. The strategy will help Children's save an estimated 10 to 12 percent in projected energy costs. The savings will be redirected to resources for providing patient care. The plant will have the capacity to heat and cool 1,500 homes and can activate emergency power for the hospital in eight seconds.

15. Additional Medical Facilities St. Vincent's Hospital St. Vincent’s Health System is made up of five facilities: St. Vincent’s Birmingham, St. Vincent’s Blount, St. Vincent’s East, St. Vincent’s St. Clair, and St. Vincent's One Nineteen Health and Wellness. Provide a special brand of high-touch, high-tech quality care to people in more than 40 different zip codes. St. Vincent's is a part of Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic and non-profit health system, with more than 100,000 associates serving in 20 states and the District of Columbia. We are committed to providing healthcare that works, healthcare that is safe, and healthcare that leaves no one behind for life. St. Vincent's Hospital Brookwood Medical Center Brookwood Medical Center is a 631-bed full service medical facility. More than 900 privately practicing physicians treat and refer patients to Brookwood. Over 200 physicians practice in offices located in one of the four professional office buildings connected to the hospital. In addition to physicians, Brookwood has a workforce of over 2,500 employees and volunteer staff that support the medical center. Brookwood is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and is licensed by the Alabama State Department of Health. Brookwood Medical Center

16. Birmingham - Moving Forward Unemployment August 2011 The Unemployment Rate for Jefferson County and the Immediate Surrounding Counties for August 2011: Jefferson County............ 9.6% Bibb County ................. 11.2% Blount County .............. 8.4% Shelby County .............. 6.8% St. Clair County ............ 8.8% Tuscaloosa County ......... 8.8% Walker County............... 10% State of Alabama ............ 9.7% The number of Birmingham, Alabama jobs has increased by 45% since November 2009 . There were 28,000 more jobs statewide in August than there were at the beginning of the year. Market Trend: Birmingham Office Market Positive Net Absorption in Q2 2011 Net absorption for the overall Birmingham office market was positive 180,728 square feet in the second quarter 2011. That compares to positive 56,364 square feet in the first quarter 2011, positive 26,049 square feet in the fourth quarter 2010, and positive 5,771 square feet in the third quarter 2010. August 2011 Commonwealth REIT (NYSE: CWH) , an Office and Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust purchased the Wells Fargo Tower in Birmingham, Alabama, for $68.5 million , or approximately $130 per square foot. AREA Property Partners sold the trophy Office Building on behalf of one of its funds in one of the biggest Office Sales in the market so far this quarter. The property last traded seven years ago for $55 million or $107 per square foot, according to CoStar Group Information. Built in 1986, the 30-story, 514,893-square foot property is located at 420 20th Street North, in the Central Business District. Wells Fargo, Burr & Forman, Merrill Lynch, Deloitte, and KPMG lead the tenant roster, which is 76 percent leased. Law firm Baker Donelson renewed its 62,623 square-foot lease earlier this year.